The cooperative competitive citizen

Each human group and each society is a complex system of cooperative and competitive relationships. These two relations are intertwined, however, it is not indifferent in what way and to what extent. The present research has aimed at revealing the requirements of cooperative competition which is a competitive process with a high degree of cooperation among the competing parties. The Critical Incident Technique was applied. This procedure is based on the direct observation of human behaviour and was elaborated in order to examine complex interpersonal phenomena and to provide ecological validity. Altogether 483 critical incidents were described by teachers and university students of education. They were instructed to recall competitive relationships that have certain characteristics (e.g. high degree of cooperation among the parties vs no cooperation among the parties; high degree of trust among the parties vs high degree of distrust among the parties, etc.) After the free description of the incident, the participants had to characterize the competitive event along different dimensions on a Likert-scale, for instance intense/not intense competition; rules kept or violated. Applying principal component analysis, four different scales were constructed: the Cooperation Scale (i.e. the relationship among the competitors, cooperation, trust and communication), the Motivation Scale (i.e. motivation, the importance of the goal, development and learning), the Fairness Scale (i.e. rule keeping, no aggression and no manipulation) and the Enjoyment Scale (i.e. enjoyment and positive stress). The correlation analysis of the interrelations among the scales and individual variables has indicated that the high degree of cooperation among the competitors was positively related to fairness, the clarity of rules of competition, enjoyment and motivation. Less cooperation among the competitors was related to higher level stress and more intensive competition among them. If competitive processes are characterized by high degree of cooperation, i.e. they are cooperative competitions that have no detrimental but only beneficial effects, then they combine the constructive aspects of both cooperation and competition

Happy and Unhappy Competitors: What Makes the Difference?

Interpersonal competition is present in all arenas of our life, i.e. within the family, in school, among peers, in the workplace, and in the sports ground. Competition can be an immensely joyful, exciting, and motivating experience that contributes to goal attainment, self-evaluation, development and improvement of the individual, the competing parties, the group and the society. However, it can also be an anxiety provoking, stressful, and exhausting negative experience that leads to interpersonal conflicts and has destructive consequences individually, to the group and ultimately to the society. Competition can be a friendly process in which the competitive parties mutually motivate and improve each other, but can also be a desperate fight full of aggression among the competitors who consider each other enemy. The result of competition can be winning or losing. Winning typically evokes positive emotions like happiness, satisfaction, and pride, but sometimes negative emotions emerge like guilt or embarrassment. Losing, as a potential result of competition, may result in sadness, disappointment, frustration, anger, shame, but can have positive consequences like learning about the self, realizing strengths and weaknesses and increased motivation for the future. There is not "one" competitive process. Competition can take qualitatively different forms and patterns that are determined by individual, situational and cultural factors. The paper will examine the factors that can be decisive in this respect: i.e., the characteristics of the competitive situation and the characteristics of the competing person. These situational and personality requirements will be further examined from a cultural perspective, taking examples from East-Asia (Japan), from North America (Canada) and from Europe (Hungary)

The Enthusiasism and/or the Fear Concerning the Globalization among the Post-Socialist Youth : The Case of the Hungarian University Students

Globalization is one of the most frequently discussed economic, political, social and cultural phenomenon of the twenty-first century, however there are very few studies that seek to uncover how young people, the future generation of the globalizing world, perceive these processes. Most of the existing studes target attitudes toward the economic changes and youth in Western European societies. There has been no study to investigate the perception and attitudes of young adults in post-socialist countries; therefore the goal of the present research was to explore Hungarian university students’ views. Altogether 103 respondents of two different majors (humanities and social sciences/economics) participated in the research. A closed-ended questionnaire including a semantic differential scale and a 4-point Likert-type attitude scale consisting of 30 items regarding the most common mentioned economic, political, cultural and environmental benefits and dangers of globalization was administered. The analysis of the data revealed that while the participants consider the influence of globalization on Hungary large, they are neither fearful nor enthusiastic about its effects, however they considered there general impact slightly more negative than positive. Items expressing different aspects of globalization resulted in five factors: Decreasing Differences, Multiculturalism, Globalization as a Threat, Benefits of Globalization, and Cultural and Economic Hegemony. University major proved to be a better predictor of the attitude towards globalization than gender. Students of economics evaluated globalization significantly as being more good, exciting and useful than students of humanities. They seemed to have a more definite and elaborated picture about what is needed for success in a globalized world in terms of skills. Economics students also had higher means in Factor 4 ‘Benefits of Globalization’ and they evaluated the specific effects of globalization more positively

Az együttműködő és versengő állampolgár nevelése: osztálytermi megfigyelések

Az együttműködés és a versengés a társas viselkedés jelentős vonatkozásai, és mint ilyenek, nem hagyhatók figyelmen kívül a neveléstudósok, a társadalomtudósok és az állampolgáriság jelenségkörében vizsgálódók számára. (1, 2) A jó állampolgár fogalma legalább két fontos szempontot foglal magába: az egyén államhoz és a többi állampolgárhoz fűződő viszonyát (Heater, 1990)

What does it take to promote cooperative competitive citizenship in a community?

Each human group (a school class, a working team, a local community etc.) is a complex system of cooperative and competitive relationships. These two interpersonal relations are intertwined, however it is not indifferent in what way and to what degree. It is a goal of each group to be able to establish a balance between them that contributes to the most constructive functioning. | The goal of the present research was to identify those conditions and their interrelationship that may promote a beneficial combination of cooperation and competition i.e. cooperative competition. In addition we wanted to reveal how the potentials of cooperative competition may vary according to different life domains. In our study the Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan, 1954) was applied. This procedure is based on the direct observation of human behaviour. The respondent has to describe freely events, as much in detail as possible that meet certain criteria. The procedure was elaborated in order to examine complex interpersonal phenomena and to provide ecological validity. Altogether 431 stories were analyzed described by university students and primary and secondary school teachers. They were instructed to recall competitive relationships that have certain characteristics (e.g. high degree of cooperation among the parties – no cooperation among the parties; high degree of trust among the parties – high degree of distrust among the parties etc.). After the free description of the ‘story’ the participants had to answer specific questions to characterize the competitive event along different dimensions with a Likert-type scale, e.g. intense/not intense; kept the rules/violated the rules etc. Applying factor analysis four different scales were constructed: the Relationship scale (cooperation, trust, communication), the Motivation scale (motivation, the importance of the goal, development, learning), the Rule keeping scale (rule keeping, no aggression, no manipulation) and the Enjoyment scale (enjoyment, positive stress). A correlational analysis revealed how these different scales relate to each other. The critical incidents were also content analysed and categorized according to the life domain in which the competition took place. The interrelation of the different relationship and situational variables with the life domain was also examined in order to reveal if in different life domains there are different potentials to form cooperative competitive relationships

Szocio-kulturálisan hátrányos helyzetű tehetséges gyerekek fejlődése: kognitív, személyiségbeli és környezeti akadályok = Development of the social-culturally disadvantaged gifted children: cognitive, personal and environmental impediments

Kidolgoztunk, és interneten is hozzáférhetővé tesszük a kognitív profil tesztet, amely alkalmas differenciált képességvizsgálatra. A szocio-kulturális háttértől függetlenül kimutathatóak a kiemelkedő képességek. A kidolgoztunk fejlesztő játékokat. Mozgásos és internetes anyagokból a kognitív profil alapján állítható össze. A kiemelkedő hátrányos helyzetűek jól hasznosították. Motivációs vizsgálatok eredményei: a hátrányos helyzetűeknél az érdeklődés hiánya jellemző. Megküzdés és a Flow szempontjából nem találtunk lényeges különbséget. Az alacsony szocio-kulturális helyzetűeknél a családi nevelés, családi élet terén sajátos a hátrány. Mind a törődés, odafigyelés, mind a családi harmónia, szabadság és differenciáció mutatókban szignifikáns különbségek adódtak. A hátrányosabb helyzetűek kreativitásban könnyebben érnek el a jobb családi hátterű gyerekekhez hasonló eredményeket, mint a Raven Mátrixokban. A mindennapi oktatásban használható módszereket dolgoztunk ki. A hátrányos gyermekek ezekkel a módszerekkel jobb eredményt értek el, mint a párhuzamos osztály. A hátrányos gyermekek viselkedése lényegében megfelel a hiperaktivitás klasszikus jegyeinek. A tanárok nem tesznek különbséget, a hiperaktivitás korrelál a szocio-kulturális szinttel. Ez, és a globális, verbálisan korlátozott információfeldolgozás a hátrányos gyermekek iskolai teljesítményét sokszorosan nehezíti. | A cognitive profil test has been created. It is accessable on the internet. The test is good for dfferentiated assessment of the abilities. The high abilities are traceable independently from the cultural background. We have worked out training games. Series of games can be chosen from motor and internet based materials according to the child?s cognitive profile. It was especially for good use for the highly able disadvantaged children. Motivation: The lack of interest is one of the most serious problem in the disadvantaged children. There weren?t much difference in the coping and feeling of flow. Children suffer a special disadvantage in the low SES families. The low SES families show a significantly lower level. in all indeces, the care, the consideration, the harmony, the freedom and the differentiation. The disadvantaged children achieve similarly to the average SES children in the creativity tasks, rather than in the Raven Matrices. We have worked out methods that can be used in the everyday teaching. The socio-culturally disadvantaged class tought by these methods achieved higher results than the paralell average class. The characteristics of the disadvantaged children?s behavior is similar to the classical signs of the hyperactivity. Teachers can?t differentiate. The hyperactivity and the SES correlates in their judgement. This and the global, verbally restricted information processing makes the school achievement many times harder for them

A versengés, győzelem és vesztés szubjektív jelentése magyar, kínai és Magyarországon tanuló kínai diákok körében

Az utóbbi évtizedben növekszik azoknak a kutatásoknak a száma, amelyek a versengés és kimenetei, a győzelem és a vesztés, kulturális meghatározottságát vizsgálják (például FÜLÖP, 201ő; WATKINS, 2006), azonban nem tudunk olyan kutatásról, amely bevándorlók konceptualizációját tárta volna fel. Jelen kutatás célja a kínai, magyar és Magyarországon élő kínai diákok versengéssel, győzelemmel és vesztéssel kapcsolatos szubjektív jelentésének feltárása, továbbá az akkulturáció nézetrendszerre gyakorolt hatásának vizsgálata volt. A vizsgálatban 166 (52 kínai, 60 magyar és 54 Magyarországon élő kínai) 13–15 éves diák vett részt. Annak érdekében, hogy a kulturális kitettség hatása megbízhatóan vizsgálhatóvá váljon, a migráns mintát a Magyarországon tartózkodás ideje alapján két részre osztottunk. A szubjektív jelentések feltáráshoz az Asszociatív Csoport Analízis (AGA, SZALAY és BRENT, 1967) technikát alkalmaztuk, melynek keretében a diákok a versengés, győzelem és vesztés hívószavakra asszociáltak (1 perc/hívószó). A jelentéskomponensek és egymáshoz viszonyított százalékos arányuk az asszociációk súlyozása és kategorizálása révén rajzolódott ki. Az eredmények az akkulturációs folyamatok szubjektív jelentésre gyakorolt hatására hívják fel a figyelmet. A migráns minta jelentésstruktúrája több komponenssel kapcsolatban hasonlóságot mutatott a magyar mintáéval. Az egyes komponensek különböző mértékben voltak érzékenyek az akkulturációra, a legérzékenyebb elem az érzelmi aspektus volt. A kulturális kitettség hatása leginkább a vesztés fogalommal kapcsolatban érvényesült: a régebb óta Magyarországon tartózkodó diákok jelentésstruktúrája a magyarra, a rövidebb ideje hazánkban tartózkodó migránsoké a kínaira hasonlít

Što građanstvo znači učiteljima pripravnicima u Engleskoj i Mađarskoj?

People growing up and living in different political systems and societies can have different answers to the question: ‘What is citizenship?’ It is especially important to know how future teachers answer this question as they will be one of the main socializing agents of the young generation and will be involved in the transmission of cultural capital from one generation to the next. In this paper we describe the context for an empirical study by drawing attention to the increasingly high profile of citizenship and citizenship education that has been generated through claims of contemporary societal crisis, new forms of governance, and a heightened emphasis on identity. We discuss the findings of a research project in which 100 trainee teachers in England 100 trainee teachers in Hungary provided data through the use of the Associative Group Analysis (AGA) technique (Szalay and Brent 1967) about their understandings and perceptions of ‘citizenship’. This study took place at a critical point when in both Hungary and England new national curricula were introduced for implementation in 2008. We present our findings and discuss the greater attention given by Hungarians compared with the English sample to national issues and the significance of institutions. We note that the English respondents have a more expansive characterisation of citizenship in that they are more likely to draw attention to a wider range of issues than the Hungarians. English trainee teachers refer to the community more readily than the Hungarians. Both groups mention rights and duties. There is relatively little attention given by both groups to citizenship in relation to economic issues (including money and work) and diversity. We argue that particular political contexts are associated with different characterisations of citizenship; beyond rather broad labelling about democratic community, participation and identity that are used to characterise citizenship in the literature these ways of understanding may not relate precisely to the nuances that may be present in empirical data; and, that aspects of some contemporary debates about citizenship are not aligned with the perceptions of people in our sample about what citizenship means. We suggest that researchers could usefully further explore whether academic and policy-related commentators could frame their understandings of overarching notions of citizenship more closely to research-based data.Ljudi koji odrastaju i žive u različitim političkim sustavima i društvima na različit će način odgovoriti na pitanje „Što je građanstvo?“. Posebno je važno saznati kako će budući učitelji odgovoriti na ovo pitanje jer će oni biti jedan od glavnih pokretača u socijalizaciji mlade generacije i bit će uključeni u prijenos kulturnog kapitala s jedne generacije na drugu. U ovom se radu opisuje kontekst empirijskog istraživanja s posebnim težištem na rastuću eksponiranost građanstva i građanskog odgoja koja je izazvana zahtjevima suvremene društvene krize, novim oblicima vladanja i povećanim naglaskom na identitet. Raspravlja se o rezultatima istraživačkog projekta u kojem je sudjelovalo 100 učitelja pripravnika u Engleskoj i 100 učitelja pripravnika u Mađarskoj koji su primjenom tehnike Associative Group Analysis (AGA) (Szalay i Brent 1967.) dali podatke o tome kako razumiju i shvaćaju pojam „građanstva“. Istraživanje se vremenski podudara s kritičnom točkom kada je 2008. u obje zemlje uveden i implementiran novi nacionalni kurikulum. Rezultati pokazuju da Mađari pridaju veću važnost nacionalnim temama i institucijama u odnosu na Engleske ispitanike. Zamijećeno je da engleski ispitanici na širi način karakteriziraju građanstvo i vjerojatnije je da će posvetiti pažnju širem rasponu tema nego Mađari. Engleski učitelji pripravnici spremnije surađuju sa zajednicom nego Mađari. Obje skupine spominju prava i obveze. I jedni i drugi relativno malo pažnje posvećuju građanstvu u odnosu na ekonomske teme (uključujući novac i posao) i raznolikost. Autori tvrde da su određeni politički konteksti povezani s različitom karakterizacijom građanstva; da se osim prilično široke nomenklature o demokratskoj zajednici, sudjelovanje i identitet koji se koriste u literaturi za karakterizaciju građanstva, ovi načini poimanja ne odnose se nužno na nijanse koje se mogu pojaviti u empirijskim podacima; konačno, da aspekti nekih suvremenih debata o građanstvu nisu u skladu s percepcijom ispitanika u našem uzorku o tome što građanstvo znači. Autori predlažu da se daljnjim istraživanjima ispita mogu li akademski ili politički komentatori svoje sveobuhvatno poimanje građanstva formulirati na način koji bi bio bliži rezultatima temeljenim na istraživanjima